Languages
Spanish
Also Known As español / castellano
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
Spanish is a Romance language descended from Vulgar Latin as spoken on the Iberian peninsula, spread worldwide from the sixteenth century onward by Spanish colonization and today the official language of twenty countries, more than any other language. It is written in the Latin alphabet and is notable among major world languages for an unusually regular relationship between spelling and pronunciation. Its closest relatives are the other Ibero-Romance languages, Portuguese, Catalan and Galician, all descended from the same Vulgar Latin base.
Facts
ISO 639-3 Code Speaker Count Attested From (Year)9th century; the earliest documents showing traces of the precursor of modern Spanish date to this century. RegionSpain; Hispanic America including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Mexico; Equatorial Guinea; Puerto Rico; significant presence in the United States 2 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Spanish directly: "the ancestor of the Romance languages, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and others."
This source names Latin directly: "Romance language descended from Vulgar Latin as spoken on the Iberian peninsula, spread worldwide from the sixteenth century onward by Spanish colonization and today the official language of twenty..."
In Family
Written In
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.